Tai Kwun Performing Arts Season: SPOTLIGHT

A Poem in Jail

Date & Time

17 Mar - 31 Aug, 2021 08 – 16.05.2021│7pm
08 & 10 – 16.05.2021│ 9:15pm

Location

Site-wide

Price

Exclusive to Tai Kwun Fans, $280/$200(Preview)

General

Curated by

 [Felixism Creation logo]

Playwright and Director

Yan Pat To

Media Installation

Kingsley Ng

Lyric Artist

Chow Yiu Fai

 

In prison, time is at once transitory and eternal….resurfacing as memories for the future. In the 1980s, two women were imprisoned in Victoria Prison, where they experienced an unexpected romance in confinement. Their growing affections for each other were interrupted as one was released while the other wrote a love poem of longing on her bed board. When released from prison, she discovered that her lover had already married. She suppressed her mishmash of feelings and started a family as well. Approaching 1997, she did not want to live in a bigger prison. The decision to immigrate prompted a final rendezvous and conversation in which deep feelings were cast aside but never forgotten. Inspired by a bed board with a love poem found in a women’s prison, this groundbreaking immersive production features artists across disciplines, including Pat To Yan (theatre), Kingsley Ng (media installation), Adrian Yeung (video artist), Jass Leung (dramaturg) and Chow Yiu Fai (lyric Artist). The immersive theatre will be remade in Tai Kwun, as lyrics, sounds, images and theatrical performances are interwoven, leading the audience to tread a path that explores Central then and now.

*Concept of the show title by〈黑房〉, Chow Yiu Fai

Creative Team

Curated by Reframe Theatre and Felixism Creation

Playwright and Director: Yan Pat To^

Project Curator: Felix Chan

Dramaturg: Jass Leung

Media Installation: Kingsley Ng

Lyric Artist: Chow Yiu Fai

Scenographer: Yuen Hon Wai

Video Designer: Adrian Yeung

Lighting Designer: Vanessa Lee

Sound Designer: Kan Hei Chun

Performers: Ceci Chan, Ng Fung Ming, Leung Tin Chak, Leung Ho Pong, Sze Wei, Cheung Tik Ki

^ With the kind permission of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts
 

<Remarks 

  • Recommended for ages 12 and above
  • No latecomers will be admitted
  • Performed in Cantonese with no surtitles
  • Audience is advised to arrive 15 mins before the show starts
  • Audience is required to walk around various locations.Please assess your physical condition if it is suitable for participation
  • Comfortable clothing is recommended
  • Programmes are subject to change without prior notice.Tai Kwun reserves the right to make the final decision regarding the arrangements.
  • The events will adhere to the latest health and safety regulations and enforce social distancing measures.

Ticketing

Tickets  |  $280/$200(Preview)

Tickets available at art-mate.net from 10 am on 11 March 2021

Discounts (Limited Quotas)

  • 40% off for full-time students, senior citizens aged 60 or above, and people with disabilities and the minders
  • 15% off for Tai Kwun Fans with valid membership number


About Reframe Theatre Company

Every creation of a theatrical work is a new and unique experience. Every work therefore experiences a new process of reframing. Reframe Theatre aims at exploring new writing, scenography, and the relationship between body and space, and is established by Pat To Yan who is a playwright, director and the part-time university lecturer. The renowned British playwright and critic, Dan Rebellato, describes Pat To Yan as a 'talented, engaged, enthusiastic, committed playwright whose work is extremely interesting, mixing the political and personal with power and effect'.


Biography

Yan Pat To

Playwright and Director

Yan Pat To is a playwright, director, writer, and educator active in both Hong Kong and Germany. He received his MA in Playwriting at Royal Holloway, University of London, and graduated with distinction. He is currently Artistic Director of Reframe Theatre, Visiting Lecturer in the School of Drama at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (Dramaturgy), the elected Council Member (in the Literary Arts art form) and Art Form Group (Literary Arts) Chairman at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. His play A Concise History of Future China is selected by 2016 Berliner Festspiele Theatertreffen Stueckemart as one of the five theatrical works presented. It is the first ethnic Chinese play ever selected, and the stage reading in German is performed in both 2020 and 2021. Yan was a resident artist at the Munich Residenztheater in 2018 with the commissioned work Happily Ever After Nuclear Explosion performed in Hong Kong and Korea in 2019. The play is nominated for Best Play at the 12th Hong Kong Theatre Libre, and is invited for performance at CINARS Biennale 2020 in Canada. His earlier work White Blaze of the Morning is awarded Best Play at the 8th Hong Kong Theatre Libre, and he is nominated for Director of the Year at the IATC(HK) Critics Awards 2019 for Goldfish of Berlin.

(Photo: Ted KIm)